My Swing (chris_284)

[chris_284]

Here is my most recent video of an outing to the range. It's 6 weeks into the season and improving my swing, and this is now my 4th video I think.

Any comments from what you guys can see would be greatly appreciated.

It looks like I'm still bringing it on the inside on my backswing, but nowhere near as bad as before.

[jesup]

Nice swing, man!  Name a few things you struggle with in your swing.  That may help people analyze your swing in a certain light and suggest things that will potentially help you out in areas you need the most help with.

One thing that jumped out to me is the beginning of your downswing - it looks like you start the downward motion with your hands (maybe an early pronation of the wrists).

The top looks fantastic, though.  You have a ton of potential energy at the top of your swing!  If you let your body settle at the top and allow your shoulders to sort of 'collapse' onto the ball, you could really unleash some power.  It's all about fluidity.  Think of the swing as a liquid process.  Dang... I'm thirsty!

You do come down a bit outside of your backswing plane, but if you control it (which it looks like you do), it's not necessarily a bad thing.  Sliding your hips and weight correctly allows you to come through the ball and makes you less likely to cast and slice.

[chris_284]

Originally Posted by jesup

Nice swing, man!  Name a few things you struggle with in your swing.  That may help people analyze your swing in a certain light and suggest things that will potentially help you out in areas you need the most help with.

Last year, my consistent ball flight was a slice. I've worked on that for the past 6 years, and have begun to hit draw. Which has turned into a nasty hook sometimes. To correct the slice I was swinging the from (7 o'clock to 1 o'clock [imagine setting your feet aim line at address from 6 to 12 oclock], and trying to close the club face and 'stay down through the ball'. This was leading to larger and larger draws. Which I was fine with to be honest. I knew why I was doing it. I wanted to learn how to hit it, so I was familiar with the both the fade and the draw. Because of this I feel I have these shots in my bags. I made a beautiful draw other day from 170 yards out in the left rough. The green wasn't visible around some trees at the front, and I hit a nice draw around the trees, onto the green, and ran it up towards the hole.

Today was a huge breakthru for me at the range. Nothing could go wrong. I grabbed my 3,5,7,9,PW,SW and basically grabbed clubs at random and hit 1-2 shots and then switched. I introduced a pre-shot routine today which I've never had, and it really did wonders for me. It calmed me down and gave me a smooth consistent tempo which lead to great consistent ball flight.

It seems like with my 3-5 irons, I hit with a slight fade. Nothing to complain about really, but I would like to straighten it out. I believe it's up in my stance enough and that's not the cause of the fade. I think it's more of me not staying down through the ball after contact with these clubs. ???

My 6-8 Iron, I hit pretty dead straight, with a tendency to hit a slight draw.

My 3-8 divots are already dead at the target.

My 9-SW is a different story. For some reason with these clubs, my divot is 50/50 dead straight on target, and outside in. My results are usually on target or ever so slightly left. My outside in plane swing, I fade the ball back on target. It's not very outside in either. Nothing to complain about. My dead straight divots/plane produces a straight ball flight.

Those are my tendencies.

I think what you are saying about letting the club drop, and not using my hands at the beginning of the downswing will help me stay down and thru the ball. I think this will cure the slight fades I'm hitting with my longer irons.

[jesup]

Originally Posted by chris_284

It seems like with my 3-5 irons, I hit with a slight fade. Nothing to complain about really, but I would like to straighten it out. I believe it's up in my stance enough and that's not the cause of the fade. I think it's more of me not staying down through the ball after contact with these clubs.

When I took another look at the front view of your swing, I saw that your upper body may be a bit behind at the moment of impact.  Your weight shift/hip slide looks great until about halfway down, then your upper body kind of "stands up" and is left behind with your lower body driving through the shot.  This could definitely be a cause for your inconsistencies between clubs - not a bad thing!  It sounds like you have success in repeating your swing - a good thing!

If your upper body were pushed through a bit more, it would narrow the margin for error - when your upper body is behind, fades and draws can easily turn into slices and hooks.  I intentionally produce fades by throwing my lower body through the swing a little more aggressively.  Try executing a few shots with a quieter lower body and see what happens.

Also, try sending iacas a message to see what he thinks.  That guy knows his stuff!

[chris_284]

Does anyone have a good visualization to think of when practicing proper release?

I thought I was doing particularly well this day at the range (and relative to beforehand, I likely was), but in comparing this photo to that of Anthony Kim, the difference is huge.

You can see my gloves left hand above my right wrist, where as with Kim his hand is well below his right.

What is a good drill, or what's a feeling/visualization to have, to practice getting that right wrist completely over?

[Nole77]

Only thing I notice is your right heel coming up well before impact.  Maybe part of the reason for the consistency issues?

[bplewis24]

Chris, I watched that video about 20 times.  When I went and got my video lesson, the pro pointed out to me that my hands started the downswing before or at the same time as my hips started moving forward.  It looks like you are doing that in this video.  Once the hands start taking over on the downswing, you can't stop that momentum.  It looks like you need to focus more on getting the hips to clear instead of rotating the shoulders.  At least, that is one of the swing thoughts I've been practicing to help me get rid of my flip.

Does anybody else (who knows more about the swing) agree with what I'm seeing?

Brandon

[iacas]

Originally Posted by chris_284

Does anyone have a good visualization to think of when practicing proper release?

You can see my gloves left hand above my right wrist, where as with Kim his hand is well below his right.

What is a good drill, or what's a feeling/visualization to have, to practice getting that right wrist completely over?

You're using one person's swing as an example of what you need to do. I'd hesitate to do that, as a great many PGA Tour players (and very good amateurs) do not roll the hands over like that.

I spend a lot more time teaching that move OUT of swings than I spend adding a little back in.